For the second year in a row, Xavier University has been ranked among the top 15 master’s universities in the country by Washington Monthly. “It says a lot about the quality of our educational experience at Xavier to be ranked highly by a national ranking system for a number of years,” Academic Vice President and Provost Scott Chadwick said. “As people look for specific characteristics that they want in a university, these rankings help them to better understand us.” The Washington Monthly is a bimonthly, non-profit political magazine known for its unique system of college rankings, which is based on three criteria: social mobility, research and service. Social mobility analyzes how committed the University is to helping low-income students earn degrees. The “research” criterion looks at research production and success sending undergraduates on to earn Ph.D.’s. Finally, service represents the University’s ability to give back to the community, taking into account the number of graduates involved in programs such as ROTC, the Peace Corps and other community service programs. “We’re here for our students, and that’s what these qualities recognize,” Chadwick said. “With a combination of academic qualities, the experiences and aspirations students bring here and the Ignatian ideals, we can create an integrated milieu in which students can learn and develop.”
Using the Carnegie Classification system of Higher Learning Institutions, Xavier is considered a Masters comprehensive institution, meaning that it awards 40 or more Masters degrees each year in at least three different disciplines. Among other Masters comprehensive universities, Xavier is ranked 14.
“We’re always honored to receive external validity of what we do and how well we do it,” Chadwick said. “But we are driven by student learning and development, not by external rankings.”